EtG Urine Alcohol Test Unreliable Warns Federal Agency

A widely-used urine alcohol test is unreliable warns the U.S. Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The EtG urine test
is used to test compliance of people legally prohibited from drinking.

The federal agency has issued a warning that the test is so sensitive
that it can falsely read positive for alcohol consumption if the
test-taker has used an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, taken medication
containing alcohol, or consumed foods containing alcohol. For example,
the test might report alcohol consumption if a person drinks orange
juice that has been in a refrigerator too long.

The Wall Street Journal reports that “The warning
represents a victory for the growing number of people who insist
they flunked the EtG test despite having abstained from liquor.
Their cases, replete with polygraph exams and other evidence of
sobriety, convinced even the scientist who pioneered EtG screening
in America that the test is prone to so-called innocent positives.
Whether the agency's warning will help these people reclaim the
jobs that some lost after flunking EtG tests is unclear. In any
case, the warning is a blow to the credibility of the $4 billion-a-year
urine-testing industry, which introduced the EtG test two years
ago as offering fail-safe proof of alcoholic-beverage consumption.”

Because of its inaccuracy, "legal or disciplinary action based
solely on a positive EtG ... is inappropriate and scientifically
unsupportable at this time," the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration warned. It recommended that a positive
test result be used as the basis for a broad investigation into
possible alcohol beverage consumption.

This recommendation, if followed, would appear to protect both
the public welfare and the rights of test-takers.